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Monday, October 05, 2009

Volume 14 No 18 - Week of October 5th

Work Day at the Farm - Saturday!

We have scheduled the work-day at the farm on Saturday and in preparation in getting the beds ready for garlic planting we encountered a series of disasters. First the plastic laying machine (which wraps the beds) broke down. Once fixed, the beds just didn't seem to wrap properly, probably they being a bit too wet. Then we ran out of drip tape which is laid under the plastic to irrigate when needed during the season. We do however anticipate having the beds ready to go for Saturday!

This past week, Ali joined Rich on the Tuesday delivery run to Hoboken & Jersey City and was able to meet Carolyn, Kristen & Lynn at three of the drop-off sites. It was good experience for her, as it showed her how the CSA distribution system works.

WORK DAY @ the FARM: October 10th 11 am - ??
Want to spend a day in the country and help us on the farm? We are scheduling our next work day at the farm to be a garlic planting day. Help us plant garlic for the 2010 season. It is a great for families, as garlic is very easy to plant. Just a few extra hands and we plant plenty of garlic in just a few hours. If we had to do it ourselves it would take the better part of a week. We first start by "popping" the garlic, which is separating the individual cloves from the bulb, then we plant each clove and finally apply mulch over it. We also plan on having a good-bye lunch for our Farm Operations Leader, Ali, who will be leaving for California. She will be sorely missed. Lisa & Jessie will be working the rest of the season. Please RSVP so that we may plan on lunch and send you directions.

From the Fields: The cold weather crops are really doing well in the field. The radishes, kale, Oriental greens (red & green mustard, Tokyo Bekana), turnips, Shanghai Cabbage. The potatoes should be in the next delivery and you will be receiving winter squash over the next few weeks as well. The winter squash varieties will be mixed week to week with acorn, delicata, butternut, spaghetti, and carnival. Most all the squash and potatoes have already been harvested.

We have basil, rosemary, cucumbers (which are on their last leg), more Oriental greens, arugula and more Shanghai cabbage growing well in the Franklin Greenhouse. We anticipate shutting down the Franklin greenhouse once everything is harvested at the end of the season. It was great to have the greenhouses this year, as the cold, wet weather really impacted the field crops.

HERB of the WEEK: Stevia - We have tried growing stevia in the past for many years and each year was not successful. This year, at least we have some that survived so can give you a sample of this interesting herb. Territorial Seed describes it as: "the Sweet Herb of Paraguay, Stevia is probably the sweetest plant in the world. It contains steviaside, which is 300 times sweeter than sugar without the calories! Add a fresh bruised leaf to iced tea, or harvest the leaves, dry, and grind to a powder for use in drinks and cooking. This vigorous tender perennial is used in many parts of the world in place of artificial sweeteners." It is best to start by tasting just a leaf to test its sweetness then you can adapt how you will use it.

Weather Report: It was a cool week followed by warmer temperatures over the week. Fortunately no frost was in the forecast. The lowest temperature for the week was 36ยบ F.

Animal Report: A few weeks ago we mentioned we had a "farm cat" sneaking into the fields. Well now there are two!

Pick of the Week: click on the links below or to the right to bring you to the delivery specific to your pick-up location. Deliveries will be of similar variety & poundage, but may contain different items. Occasionally, some crops are ready to harvest but not enough to deliver to all our drop-off locations. What we do is start to filter them in each week to a different drop-off until there is enough to delivery to everyone.

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